Bulls & Bears: Bright days for new Knights, not enough bums in Buffalo

Bulls of the Week

Our biggest Bull of the Week is the continuing success story that is the Vegas Golden Knights.

A Thursday loss notwithstanding, the NHL’s Golden Child continues to write a storybook first season by going into the weekend with a Western Conference-leading record of 27-10-2. That’s impressive for the most established of teams. It’s downright remarkable for an expansion franchise icing a roster gleaned largely from other teams’ castoffs.

Only the Tampa Bay Lightning have a better record in the NHL.

The Golden Knights are also making their mark in merchandising (tops in the league to date this season) and social media (with more than 274K followers on Twitter in less than one year in the space).

The great news out of the gates in the world’s sports and entertainment capital is early validation for Commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHL for rolling the dice as the first major sports league to land on the strip. Given that more than 45 million tourists stream into Las Vegas each year, it’s also major props for a league that has strived to create a greater profile for itself in the United States.

The positive results in Las Vegas — on and off the ice — have also helped reform the new expansion fee threshold of $650M which Seattle will pay to become the 32nd team in the NHL within three years.

And make no mistake: It will give both Major League Baseball and the NBA a nudge in terms of their own timelines regarding expansion into Vegas and other open markets in North America.

The host United States won the World Junior Hockey Championship’s bronze medal on Friday and there were a lot of fans disguised as empty seats in Buffalo. N.Y.

Bears of the Week

Outside of the record crowd of more than 44,000 for the Canada-USA outdoor game at New Era Field, the attendance has been downright bearish for every other game held at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo, N.Y.

An overall average of 6,500 per game — including the spike provided by the outdoor game — is a fail for an American city on the Canadian border in a solid hockey market (Buffalo scored the best regional television ratings for the NHL in the U.S. last season).

It’s particularly disappointing when set against the tremendous power of the television product delivered to good audiences (especially in Canada) by official broadcaster TSN/RDS.

We all get this is a tournament that matters more in Canada than anywhere else in the world, but the IIHF and local organizing committee took many junior hockey fans for granted on ticket accessibility. There should have been more emphasis on pricing incentives and discounts for series ticket packages for multiple games.

When you ignore Job 1 in the business of sport — putting bums in seats — you do so at your peril. In this case, they may have also been too preoccupied with the logistics of the outdoor game and took their eyes off the larger marketing goal of promoting world-class junior hockey at family-friendly prices.

Notwithstanding what should be a well-attended event in Vancouver and Victoria next year, the bottom line result of the disappointment in Buffalo these past two weeks and some soft attendance the past couple of years in Toronto and Montreal will be a retooling of World Juniors pricing and host city parameters and guidelines.

The Sport Market on TSN 1040 rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturday from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans.

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